Not even R.A. Dickey’s dancing knuckleball was enough to slow down the run-away Cleveland Indians.

The Tribe bumped its season-high win streak to 13 games in a row, getting just enough of what Dickey had to offer and more than enough from his counterpart on the night, Carlos Carrasco.

The Indians right-hander racked up 14 strikeouts in 7.1 innings as the Indians won 4-1 to improve their American League-leading record to 48-30.

The only damage the Jays could manage against Carrasco was a no-doubt home run to straight-away centre in the fourth off the red-hot bat of Josh Donaldson.

“No doubt about it, it was Carrasco’s night,” Jays’ manager John Gibbons said. “He has always been one of the better pitchers in the league when he’s healthy and he just had everything going and he just shut us down.”

Other than that Donaldson smash, Carrasco limited the Jays to just four other base runners through his 7.1 innings, one which was eliminated on a double play ball. Against Dickey, the Indians came in just aggressive enough, jumping on a first-pitch knuckleball and a first pitch fastball for home runs by Rajai Davis leading off the second and Jason Kipnis with one down in the third. The Kipnis homer, off the fastball, was the first such homer Dickey could remember giving up this season.

An insurance run in the sixth by the Indians on a lead-off double by Mike Napoli and a run-scoring single by Jose Ramirez wasn’t even needed as they would go on to win 4-1 tagging on one more in the ninth.

Cody Allen came on to retire the Jays in order in the ninth for his 17th save of the year.

Throughout the winning streak the Indians have won games by various manners but the most consistent element of their game has been their starting pitching and Carrasco kept that rolling Thursday night.

“It wouldn’t matter what lineup you throw at him,” Gibbons said. “He was on. He was just that good.”

Carrasco allowed just the three hits to improve to 4-2 on the year.

The Indians have not lost since June 15. Since that time, they have swept four consecutive series against the White Sox, Tigers, Rays, and Braves.

Over those 12 games the Indians have outscored opponents 76-25, scoring six or more runs of their own eight times and allowing four or more runs just twice in the streak.

Carrasco was throwing mid- 90s all night and his 14 strikeouts were a season high. His previous high was eight which he reached twice. Twice in the game, he struck out the side, first in the third inning and then again in the seventh.

Dickey was by no means bad Thursday night but he was no match for Carrasco.

The two first-pitch homers he gave up were the ninth and 10th homers of the month against him, but he has still allowed just 17 runs in the month which ties his May total and is six runs better than his April runs allowed despite giving up just three homers in the opening month and six in six starts in May.

“For the most part, my velocity was good, my movement was good, I was changing speeds pretty well innings three through seven in particular, but I felt real strong,” Dickey said. “Another night I could have thrown a complete game.”

But the real sign for optimism from a Jays perspective came in the eighth when Brett Cecil made his first appearance out of the bullpen since going on the disabled list on May 15.

The lefty reliever retired the Indians in order in the eighth getting Kipnis to ground out, struck out Francisco Lindor and then got Napoli to pop out to Justin Smoak in foul territory.

Cecil said the key for him was his command of his fastball which got him ahead early in counts and allowing him to save his curve ball for later in counts.

“Just felt good to be able to get ahead of hitters again and not have to try to get a strike with my curveball early in a count that I’m behind in,” Cecil said. “That’s the biggest key, especially coming out of the pen, be able to get strike one and just being able to get to that good secondary stuff for any of the guys.”

We can’t overstate how important Cecil is to the Jays chances going forward. Owners of the some of the worst numbers of any bullpen in the majors, the Jays need a boost and Cecil’s return, despite his shaky April numbers, gives them that potential.

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